Lord Burnett, the Lord Chief Justice, said the report ‘once again shows an increase in the proportion of women within the judiciary and steady but slow progress for some, but not all, ethnic minorities.
‘The proportion of “Black” and “Other minority ethnic” judges has remained the same.’
Women now make up 37% of judges in court and 54% of tribunal judges, a small increase on last year. While women are underrepresented in the higher levels of the judiciary, they made up half of the eligible pool and half the recommendations.
There has been a slight increase in ethnic minority judges overall—but negligible improvement in the representation of Black judges. Only 67 judges across courts and tribunals are Black, making up 1.27% of the judiciary.
Nick Vineall KC, chair of the Bar Council, said: ‘We agree with the Lord Chief Justice that public confidence in and the legitimacy of the judiciary are sustained by a judiciary that reflects the broad composition of the society it serves.
‘The latest diversity statistics show that progress is being made, but it is not being made equally across the board. For example, Black candidates are disproportionately less likely to succeed than White candidates. We need to continue efforts to understand why we are seeing this pattern.
‘The disparity between Black candidates and all ethnic minority candidates also demonstrates the importance of granularity in data. As we stated in our Race at the Bar report, barristers from ethnic minority backgrounds should not be treated together as a single group, as that does not provide a complete picture.’
The statistics highlighted the disparity between solicitors and barristers in the judiciary. According to the statistician’s comment, ‘there are about ten times as many solicitors as barristers, but there are six former barristers to every four former solicitors in the judiciary.
‘This reflects the significantly lower recommendation rates for solicitor compared to barrister candidates during the judicial appointments process, although solicitor-background candidates applying for more senior roles, requiring previous judicial experience, were recommended at very similar rates to barristers’.
The statistics show that, across all the selection exercises held last year, solicitors made up 48% of applicants but only 35% of recommendations, while barristers made up 35% of applications and 50% of recommendations.
Currently, 68% of court judges and 39% of tribunal judges are barristers.
Law Society president Lubna Shuja said: ‘The proportion of the judiciary from a non-barrister background remains persistently low despite solicitors making up the majority of applicants.
‘The selection process needs to be urgently reformed. The requirement to consult sitting judges on candidates’ suitability, known as “statutory consultation”, must be reviewed with serious consideration given to removing it altogether, as it is not working fairly or transparently at the moment.
‘As recommended by the independent review which the Judicial Diversity Forum commissioned, all members should now set measurable impact targets, share underlying data to ensure activities are effective and have selection processes that appropriately recognise and weigh the experience and transferable skills of solicitors.
‘A career path from the tribunals to the courts also needs to be developed.’
Welcoming the report, a CILEX representative said: ‘It is particularly noteworthy that references to CILEX Lawyers are often minimal compared to those of barristers and solicitors because the number of actual judicial appointments made from this group is too small to register in statisticians’ analysis.
‘CILEX therefore looks forward to the recent legislative change opening up more judicial roles to CILEX members, ensuring these statistics improve over time, with all appointments being open to this diverse part of the legal profession in due course.’
